A small little film, directed by Campbell Scott, that very occasionally slips into a precious recalling-my-young-girlhood-and-becoming-an-adult ramble (mainly through a precariously balanced voiceover, that sometimes prances into convention), but… BUT I really liked this film.
A family lives in rural New Mexico, avoiding jobs and most commodity traffic–and taxes; a tax man (Jim True-Frost, late of The Wire, and almost a revelation in this role) shows up, falls in love, stays on. The father (Sam Elliott) suffers from an undefined, pervasive depression; the mother (an astounding Joan Allen, unlike I’ve ever seen her before) remains almost unflappable yet utterly grounded; the taciturn family friend (J. K. Simmons) seems quiet out of sheer bewilderment at the family he so clearly loves.
It’s funny, occasionally moving, almost always just that perfect small distance from conventional in its approach to dialogue and narrative. It’s full of marvelous images, ‘though sometimes the director seems a bit too intent on wondering at the environment, the camera rushing around to take it all in.
Great acting, but don’t expect a rush of narrative energy or even grandstanding actorly moments–it’s a small film.
I haven’t got much to say beyond see it.